100 Moods Challenge
by Leni
Summary: A collection of one-shots (drabbles and ficlets) set in canon. From 'Vampire Academy' to 'The Golden Lily'. Spoilers for the last book will have a warning, just in case.
1. accomplished Rose and Lissa Rose's pov

**SUMMARY:** At the beginning of _Vampire Academy_. A day in the life of two high school girls.  
**WORDCOUNT:**~800

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: accomplished._

* * *

**BABY STEPS  
**_by Leni_

* * *

When I entered her room, Lissa looked up, a smile ready on her lips. Then she tilted her head and her eyebrows did that thing that meant she knew I was up to something. That bond between us may be one-sided, but that girl could read me like a flashing billboard with ten-feet tall letters.

Perhaps the huge canary-eating grin I was wearing tipped her off?

"Spill," she ordered as she pointed me to the spot next to her. Best friend or not, she could act like royalty whenever she pleased.

In response, I stuck out my tongue. She should have known better.

Lissa laughed. "Keep it to yourself then."

But as I said, she knew me too well, and she _did _know better. I sat down, and lasted eight full seconds before I gave up the info. "I beat Dimitri at training!"

Her lips quirked up. She knew how I felt about always losing those matches – no matter that they were all just for practice, or that Dimitri was _years _more advanced. "That's amazing!"

I squirmed. It was one thing to tease my trainer, or to lord it up over my classmates, but Lissa's faith demanded I tell the whole truth. "Well…. I managed to hold him down for a couple seconds. But that counts!"

Her green eyes flashed in amusement, but she soon was sympathizing with me. "Sure it does, Rose." She thought better of patting my knee, knowing I didn't need comforting, and instead settled for a bit of cheerleading. "And one day you'll get him."

I sighed and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "I sure hope so." I flashed back to earlier that afternoon, when I'd rolled up on top of Dimitri and managed to push him down with knees and hands and keep him there. It'd been only a moment before he'd thrown me off, but I still remembered the expression on his face.

Surprise, yes. And something more. Something like… pride?

I didn't have a lot of experience with that kind of look, but I figured that must be it. He was proud of the seventeen-year-old who'd been _this _close to being expelled – even before she'd run away with the last surviving Dragomir.

Dimitri was so weird.

Lissa laid herself down next to me, not bothering to ask what my sudden turn in moods meant, and reached for one of her pillows. "Here."

I took the pillow and tucked it under my head. I had realized that I'd started to like Dimitri; we wouldn't be best friends anytime soon, but he was a good guy – and an excellent teacher. But shouldn't I blame him for bringing us here? I was still sure that, had the guardians sent anyone else, we'd have managed to escape. "Lissa…" I said after a moment of silence. "Is it okay that we came back?"

She frowned, but I could tell it was because she was considering my question rather than an answer in itself. Finally she shrugged. "Can't you just read my thoughts?"

I was surprised. "You want me to?"

Lissa smiled. "Lots easier than trying to put it into words."

A moment later, I realized what she'd meant. She was afraid, but she _was_home, and she felt guilty for her fears. Then her thoughts turned to me, and I saw myself through her eyes: three weeks ago I'd walked around tense and stressed, always looking behind my shoulder while being worried sick about our housemate breaking through Lissa's compulsion; now I laughed more, and even if I kept getting new bruises between classes and Dimitri's training, I just shrugged them off, clearly happy for the chance to become a real guardian.

And she was proud of me for making the best of that new chance.

There was that word again. These days, everyone seemed proud of Rose Hathaway.

Maybe I should think about getting aboard that train, too.

"Thank you, Lissa," I told her, closing the link as best I could. "You have a world of possibilities, too, you know."

Lissa just smiled back. In her mind, I saw a flash of black hair and ice-blue eyes, a secretly amused glint in them.

Christian Ozera.

I hid my reaction by grinning at her. Inside, I assured myself that it was either a kink in our link, or a passing fancy. A _very_small one. "What plans for later?"

"Well, Natalie said…."

I groaned. I liked the younger girl, I did. But would it kill her to be more interesting?

"Rose," Lissa scolded. "She's a sweet kid, and she's been nice when everyone else-"

"Stop, please stop." I pulled out the pillow and covered my face with it. When I peeked out, Lissa was still waiting for my answer. "Okaaaaaay," I mumbled. "I'll go with you."

* * *

The End  
05/12/12


	2. aggravated RoseDimitri Dimitri's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in the middle of _Blood Promise_. Rose and Strigoi!Dimitri.  
**WORDCOUNT: **~775

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: aggravated._

* * *

**THE HONEYMOON STAGE  
**_by Leni_

* * *

"We will move to the city," I told Rose, tucking her against me. "We'll finish with that little band you lead first, of course. Or maybe just sic them on other Strigoi." They were one member short, but they should have known better than to continue without Rose's guidance. Nathan had bragged about rogue guardians tasting better – as if I should care about the fate of those fools. "You liked Novosibirsk, didn't you?"

"Mmmhmmmm," she sighed. "Everything was beautiful. Just like you said."

I gave up on trying to remember such a conversation. The past wasn't important, anyway. "Sure." I smoothed her hair back away from her cheeks, making a point of dragging my fingers up her skin. But she didn't shudder at my touch anymore. I wondered whether she ever considered how warm she was to me now. Every kiss scalded me even as it reminded me to be patient with her.

She would come around, I knew. She was already softening, holding on to me even as we played on my bed, gazing at me with eyes that begged never to leave her.

I wouldn't.

Because she would come to me.

I tangled my fingers in her hair. At last, I could savor its softness, let the strands run on my palm, and investigate each shade, from soft browns to the darkest of blacks. Rose had never cared much for it, had even threatened once to cut it short. She'd been taught by those stupid schoolboys that her full body was her best asset. Idiots! Now I leaned above her and kissed the crown of her head.

I would teach her better.

She was beautiful, but only part of it was because of her looks. She was amazing. She was the perfect match for me. No one else would have travelled half the world to kill me, to 'save' me. No one else would have stayed when I proved how little I had changed.

"Say yes, Rose."

Her lips were bright red from my kisses, her eyes content as they glanced up at me. "To what?"

Even now she resisted. Dazed and shot full of endorphins, she would not say the word. Stubborn girl, my Roza. If I didn't have the pressure of Galina's displeasure, I would be proud of her.

Who was I kidding? I _was_ proud. Galina could go to hell – and soon she would do exactly that.

"Don't you want forever?" I asked, letting my hand tug her skirt a little higher. The bodice of her dress brushed against my chest, silky and whisper-soft. Rose deserved to have been dressed in the best fashions since the moment she learned to walk; one of my best memories of the past was her showing up on my doorstep in that little black dress.

I should never have let her out of my bed that night.

"Forever, Roza," I repeated, "Yours for the taking."

She frowned. "But I don't want to die."

I swallowed my anger. This was progress, I reminded myself. On her first day with me, she'd screamed about 'evil' and 'sick' and 'twisted'. Now she was just afraid. If I tried, I could even understand.

But I didn't _want_ to be understanding.

"You'll make the right choice," I told her, soothing myself with the easy smile on her face. Then I kissed her hard, both to sate myself and remind her why she wanted me so badly – and she did. She always had. I could have had her from the moment we met, instead of playing those childish games. And the one time I'd fucked her… The memories were good. Her, sweet and pliant at first, growing as bold as I allowed her. A kitten learning to leap further, an eager woman gasping under me and forgetting her attempts to take the lead.

It would be better the next time, and I barely stopped myself from taking our current encounter too far.

"Dimitri…" she whispered at the end, curling into me.

I traced the bite mark, smiling when she arched closer. Her face was a study of bliss, almost - _almost_ - what she'd looked like when I'd held her in that cabin. "I won't wait much longer," I warned. I followed a drying line of a blood drop that had made its way to her neckline. It had already blossomed on the blue fabric. Ruined, unless Inna made an excellent job at laundering it. But why bother? Why give Rose a stained dress when she should be covered in jewels.

She deserved better.

She deserved _me_.

If only she would submit, I would give her the world.

* * *

The End  
05/12/12


	3. amused Mason and Rose Mason's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in _Frostbite_. Mason's pov.  
**WORDCOUNT: **~850

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: amused._

* * *

**THE LIFE OF A SNOWFLAKE  
**_by Leni_

* * *

Gotta admit. Eddie's snowball had caught me cold.

Yeah, yeah. Awful pun, I know. That's the kind of thing that being with Rose Hathaway does to a guy's sharp wit. It just fizzles away and all I want to do is to make her smile.

She would punch me if I said it aloud, but her smile was too sweet to keep it hidden. Don't get me wrong. Rose smiled often, especially when she was among friends, or when she'd just scored a good hit in front of our trainer. Or when she called him 'Stan' behind his back, as if any other student at St. Vladimir's would dare bandy about an official guardian's first name without their express permission.

One of these days, she'd slip in Guardian Alto's face, and wouldn't that be interesting?

Knowing Rose, she'd throw a hell of a defense, up to and including that Guardian Belikov didn't seem to mind. I often wondered if she noticed how many times his name slipped out, while the rest of us were stuck gazing at him in awe even after all his months at the school.

That was different, of course. They actually got along, for one, and Rose didn't get along with a lot of people – as last semester's showdown with Mia Rinaldi had proved. Any other guy would have fretted about it, and even Eddie had pointed out how Belikov seemed to turn up whenever Rose was in trouble, but I knew better. It was common knowledge that Belikov had shot down a number of both dhampir and Moroi girls on his first month on campus, but I'd actually seen it happen – or eavesdropped, rather. Not my fault that Julia had chosen to ambush him in the library while I was still there! He'd been kind but cold, if that made sense, and unyielding on the matter of being uninterested in high school girls. The man was a god, sure – a steel-hearted one.

Which meant that Rose was safe as houses around him, no matter that they spent all that time together focusing on getting her caught up with the rest of the class – both before _and_after class. I'd pitied Rose for a while there, at the beginning, but she'd been quick to show everybody what was what. Yet another proof of how awesome she was. Deep down, I knew that if I – or anyone else – missed two years of instruction, I'd be lost in our year's level. But not Rose, oh no. She sucked it up, and under Belikov's tutelage, she'd made a steady rise to the top of the class.

She was one of us again.

Down to sneaking around for an impromptu snowball fight.

"Eat dirt, Eddie!" she yelled suddenly, wiping out her cheek. One of his shots managed to get her when she was pelting another of the guys.

Eddie whooped. "You'll have to catch me first, Hathaway!"

I grinned. It wasn't only friendship that made me sure that Eddie was one of the few who might escape unscathed from that challenge.

Of course, I wasn't counting on Rose recruiting help. Two years ago – and even two months ago, when she'd just returned to the school – she would have gone after Eddie on her own.

But now she turned to me. "You with me?"

Technically, I was on Eddie's team. But he _had _hit me first.

I smirked back at her. "Sure thing." Eddie would get it. In real life, best friends got trumped by soon-to-be girlfriends all the time – especially when 'soon' looked out to be sooner than expected. The signs were there, heck, even her best friend approved, and it wasn't easy to impress a Dragomir. I still remembered being a sophomore, watching as the older students vied for a chance to be her brother's guardian, or at least catch his notice.

Rose had chosen me, even if the words weren't out yet. Sure, I'd messed things up when I'd gotten mad about her meeting Adrian Ivashkov. And 'mad' it was – how could I have bought into Mia's lies? That girl was a snake.

But after the last couple of hours, I was sure that only minimal groveling was required to get Rose's forgiveness.

What else could a guy ask for?

"Lead the way, babe."

Rose beamed at that, and just like that, I was speechless and thankful for dhampir reflexes when another missile zoomed by me. _That _was what I'd meant with hidden smiles. Because Rose Hathaway was as good-humored and fun-loving as they came, but sometimes… Sometimes the greatness of her managed to strike everyone smart enough to notice.

And when she smiled like that, with true affection and mirth… Well. I was a goner.

She would crack up if I ever told her, but to me, she was a goddess. The true and original deity of St. Vladimir's.

I still couldn't believe that by the end of this trip, she would be my girl.

"Ready, Mason?"

I knew I answered more than her one question when I said, "For you, always."

* * *

The End  
06/12/12


	4. angry AdrianRoseDimitri Adrian's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in _Last Sacrifice_. Adrian's pov.  
**WORDCOUNT: **~920

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: angry._

* * *

**TEMPORARY BLINDNESS  
**_by Leni_

* * *

It said something about the whole situation that my first thought was: _of course_.

_Of course_ Rose had worked her way through her father's failsafe plan for her protection; _of course_ she had gotten an Alchemist – that species of human that walked the line between enemy and reluctant ally – to help her. _Of course_ she had found one of the few known spirit users _and_ changed her back into a Moroi – though I'd need more detail on that, as I knew for a fact that both Lissa and I had been at Court, and who else could spirit-charm a stake? _Of course _her little road trip had unearthed a clean, incontestable solution for Lissa's eligibility in the upcoming election and decisive clues about Aunt Tatiana's murder.

And _of course _she and Belikov were all over each other again.

The only surprise was that I hadn't seen this coming.

* * *

(Lies. Lies. But it's too easy to lie to oneself.)

* * *

I should have known the first time I saw them, almost a year ago now. They'd dropped clues as if they couldn't carry them along any longer, and yet too few had bothered to notice. But first amusement, and then growing curiosity, had driven me to keep an eye on them. I still remembered witnessing all the moments where they clashed against each other; sometimes with their knowledge, sometimes unnoticed in the background, along with the rest of the world; sometimes over important issues, sometimes over foolish ones that made me smile.

I was not smiling now.

I should have known, even then. Because no matter how many times they'd hurled harsh words and injured looks at each other, neither had ever showed the cracks for it.

* * *

(They didn't break easily. They didn't break unless the other was broken too. There was a lesson to apply there… somewhere.)

* * *

I should have known when my chance to get Rose's notice was earned by giving her the means to chase after him.

But she had come back and Belikov had still been away, worse than dead. When that didn't last and he returned to our lives, I'd barely had time to be nervous before he took care of pushing her back to my arms.

I should have known I'd pay for that favor.

* * *

(The devil's in the details, they say. The look in his eyes. The smile on her lips. Details, details…)

* * *

One moment, I was a boyfriend, happy to have her back within touching distance, ready with a quip about either getting a move or risking Guardian Tanner thinking better of this and ditching us to run away with his newly restored lover.

It was supposed to get a laugh out of Rose. She had an amazing laugh, both freeing and carefree; after her trip to Siberia, I had barely heard it, and it was my personal mission to make her laugh as often as possible.

But there wasn't meant to be any laughter.

Instead, I got to watch as Belikov touched her forehead with his lips – a gesture I'd have brushed off if it had been any of the other guys in Rose's life. But then she dropped his wrist as if it burned, and her big brown eyes stared at me with guilt and pity written all over them.

Yes, one moment I was a boyfriend. The next, I was her ex.

I didn't even get a 'let's-be-friends' speech in-between.

* * *

(Why was there pity? _Why? _…why did I need to ask at all?)

* * *

Tanner came to collect her, oblivious to the tension in our little reunion. Recovering the woman he'd thought lost forever had clearly blinded the man to neighboring love triangles kicking out one of its sides.

I wished I was blind instead, or at least drunk enough not to see the play of auras before me. They had always mirrored each other, teammates and equals with the clear potential of _more_; but where the air between them had always been the blue of strength, with stripes of purple and red for hidden lusts and unsaid words, now the colors twined around each other, blending in that encompassing gold that I'd seen on Rose only a few hours ago.

Ah, Rose. No wonder my little dhampir had greeted me in such a subdued manner. Needless to say, I _never_wanted to find out what she'd been about before I visited her in that last dream.

In the meanwhile, Rose had stopped staring at me and was nodding at Tanner instead. I looked at the older guardian. He was of average figure and, from what I heard, had a soul-killing job, shoved down in the recesses of the archives. And yet…

I, a pampered heir of the most powerful Moroi family, tasted envy.

Lucky Tanner. Must be nice to be in love with someone who loved you back.

Instead of, say, standing frozen as one's beloved made time for a whispered exchange _with another guy _before leaving without one word for me. That they'd been whispering about me – their quick glances in my direction betrayed them – didn't make it better.

* * *

(Better if I left them. Better if I walked away. …Lies and lies, again. )

* * *

Ah, Rose. For a few months, I forgot I'd met her when she was breaking a school boy's heart, her hands happily entwined with his while her eyes hungered only for her mentor.

I should have known my own heart would be next.

I took out a cigarette and lit up.

Nobody around me cared.

* * *

**The End**  
06/12/12


	5. annoyed ChristianLissa Christian's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in _Vampire Academy_. Christian's pov.  
**WORDCOUNT: **~960  
Thanks for pointing out the typo, R-l-D.

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: annoyed._

* * *

**OUR SECRET  
**_by Leni_

* * *

Great. Just great.

I had only wanted some privacy, away from the prattle that passed as my classmates' conversation. In the last couple of days, such illuminated talk had taken a turn to the worse and sillier –full of contradictions and inconsistencies, too, not that they would realize that – due to the return of St. Vladimir's lost sheep.

Or, as they were better known, Princess Dragomir and Slutty Rose – not that anybody called the latter that name to her face. I believe that the last one to try had been Dawn Yarrow, seconds before she'd been slammed against a nearby tree. After that mess, nobody on campus had felt the need to risk a limb just to needle a jumpy dhampir.

Especially when Vasilissa took care to ruin one's reputation afterward.

Yarrow should have known better than to go against Hathaway without taking Vasilissa's power into account.

Compared to the rest of Moroi royalty, little Vasilissa had always looked like a saint, all smiles and patience and fair play. But the blood in her veins came from the Dragomir line, and one only had to flip through a history book to know that none of her ancestors was known for their congeniality. The little Dragomir had been born with sharp edges, and they cut deep when someone she loved was on the line – I'd seen her in action a couple times, before the accident that killed her family, when other students had tried to fill her in on her brother's less savory adventures.

She was loyal, I'd give her that.

To the point where she had shred another girl's chances to hold her head high. It had been easy, of course, a few cutting comments in the right ears and Yarrow was an outcast. Fleetingly, I wondered how Yarrow was doing now. She'd turned coward at her new status and fled the academy as soon as her arm was set.

No one missed her.

That's what being an outcast meant. I should know.

No one had asked questions, either. I doubted that even Hathaway was aware of the details; like most dhampirs, she was blind to anything but the most direct route: see the threat, punch the threat, worry later. She wouldn't believe it, anyway. It was obvious that she saw herself as Vasilissa's big bad protector, and she had this habit of watching over her best friend as if the daughter of one of our old houses could be the most fragile Moroi since the dawn of time.

How Hathaway forgot that even baby dragons had claws and fangs, I had no idea.

Except that the little princess wasn't looking too dangerous now. In fact, she seemed… vulnerable. And terrified.

Yeah… just _great_.

That frightened look on her face was making me feel like a jerk.

I'd wanted to surprise her, all right. Give her a little jolt so that she'd rush out of the attic room and leave me back to myself. Instead she looked terrified, as if I'd jumped out of my corner with the intention to do something unspeakable to her.

I didn't look that scary, did I?

And what if I did, anyway? Who the hell was she to be scared when _she_was the intruder?

"Don't worry, I won't bite," I bit out. I could have rolled my eyes at the cliché dripping from that sentence. What was I, a ghost from a children's scary tale? Whatever. Might as well see it through the end. "Well, at least not in the way you're afraid of."

She frowned, just a little.

I watched her hesitate, and I had to chuckle at the whole situation.

There I was, having just gone over every fact I knew about Vasilissa Dragomir. And she was taking a moment to place me in her memory. _Just. Great. _If I had ever wanted proof of how low my public profile was, this was it. The social butterfly of our grade, the girl who, prior to her mystery flight, had had a word for every fellow royal and a smile for everyone else, was having trouble remembering a guy who'd been in her class since third grade.

At least that meant her fear was not that I'd kill her on the spot, in order to become Strigoi.

To her credit, she recovered soon.

"What are you doing here?"

A more interesting question was, what was _she _doing here? Even if she'd been keeping to herself since her return, a dusty attic above the chapel was not where Moroi princesses spent their free time.

But I had enough experience with girls to know that, if asked, she'd ignore the question. No matter. There were enough clues to build an answer by myself: she'd gone straight to the window seat, no looking around the room for better accommodations; her body language, in those seconds before I'd interrupted, had spoken of long familiarity with that spot, her legs curled comfortably under her, her head thrown back to admire the diffused light, and her shoulder almost but not quite touching the glass, as if she was aware of how cold it was to the touch.

She had come here before. Often.

"Taking in the sights, of course," I answered, moving on to point out the 'perks' of the attic.

Instead of blinking, or even sneaking a peek at the legless table, she rolled her eyes at me.

Well, she was not frightened anymore. That was great – for real. It meant I could stop her from leaving and not feel like I'd kicked a puppy. I had questions. Contradictions and inconsistencies, remember?

I wanted answers, and I was not afraid. Vasilissa could draw out her claws and her fangs, I didn't mind. Because, deep down, dragons were made of fire. And I?

I was in my element.

* * *

**The End**  
08/12/12


	6. anxious Abe's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in _Blood Promise_. Abe's pov.  
**WORDCOUNT: **~1600

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: anxious._

* * *

**ROAD TRIP  
**_by Leni_

* * *

Hathaway women would be the death of me.

Almost twenty years ago, Janine Hathaway had been a mistake worth making, the best of a thousand worlds a young man focused on power hadn't cared to imagine – or to keep.

She had been beautiful and tiny, a porcelain doll with a core of steel, idealistic in her view of the future, stubborn like few dhampir women would dare to be. She had been – and still was, from all accounts – a firm wall of principles that could bend if the circumstances demanded it (and her spoiled lover had demanded it) but never as much as showed a crack. She had been selfless, though I had not recognized it at the time, gentle and with a quick, sober humor that had fit my own. I'd heard of how fearsome she would become when her charges were under a threat, but around me, she was just… Janine.

I still couldn't tell whether she or I had been the naïve one.

The world had believed that I'd ensnared her, lured the most promising guardian in years into a liaison that had distracted her and almost destroyed her destiny.

As if God Himself could tell her what to do.

I had honestly thought my time with Janine had been enough of a lesson. I'd believed I was making love to a sweet-faced guardian with a killer body, and before I noticed, our week together had turned into a month, and then six, and I had actually looked forward to that first anniversary when everything had blown up in my face.

Young men are bastards. I'll be the first to own up to that.

Where I'd been making time, and even joining her to play house on her downtime, Janine had been making plans. _Plans_. Even now, the word makes me shiver unless I'm the mastermind behind them. She had built a world around her hopes of me, and when I'd dashed them, she had been quick to make the world crash around me – as well as slammed her knee to the spot it would hurt the most.

I can tell you, even having never met Janine's daughter: never expect that because she's crying, she'll show weakness. Hathaway women have better things to do with their time than to wallow. Most people mourn their losses; Janine never hesitated to pour her sadness into action.

I could not imagine Rosemarie doing anything else.

Where the Dragomir child had wasted away after her family's death, my daughter had sneaked her away from that fortress known as St. Vladimir's Academy and kept her alive in the human world for two years. Not much past her fifteenth birthday, and she'd proved herself in ways few seasoned guardians ever could.

My spies had a hard time keeping tabs on them, and I have to admit, every time they admitted to have lost the trail of the two teenagers, I grew a little more proud of my child.

Stubborn like her mother. Loyal to her Moroi, too.

But the way Rosemarie went about achieving her goals…. Ah. I would have conceived a way to meet her just because of that.

I never dreamed she would be the one to cross the Atlantic and land herself straight in my playground. Or that she'd make the acquaintance of my pet Alchemist so soon.

Or that her goal would be to reach a dhampir community. She was her mother's daughter, and I still remembered Janine's impression of those places.

Rosemarie didn't seem the type to get entangled with some young Moroi, bear his love child and come to raise it in Siberia. The only plausible candidate was the one funding this trip, and though that alone should be damning evidence, I'd made it my business to get to know Adrian Ivashkov in the last months.

The queen's favorite was risking her displeasure over an underage dhampir girl with a damaged reputation.

Not the kind of man who would pack her off to the furthest corner of the world.

But if not a rejected lover, neither was Rosemarie the kind of guardian who left everything behind – including her self-appointed charge – and travelled all the way to some far-away village on a whim. Was she a lovesick girl or a rogue? Was she just a wild teenager in search of adventure? Whatever the answer was, the possibilities were enough to prod me into investigating her motives myself. Some things could not be trusted to underlings.

If she had decided to leave the guardians, I had options for her. If she wanted adventure, I could give her the world. If she was in love… well.

Like I said, young men were bastards. Even the ones with the best intentions. And young women, even Hathaway women, could act stupid when they fashioned themselves in love.

I would take care of that, should I need to.

The plan had been simple: get to know her in Baia, assess which was the best course for her, and send her on her way.

Trust a child of mine to be as eager as myself to follow someone else's plan.

I _never_considered Strigoi, though. I had not expected the bastards to be anywhere close to her. Someone would pay for giving me such false data, otherwise I'd have never given the okay to the girl Alchemist to continue their way on their own!

I believed in God enough to be thankful that I was already halfway there, and to curse him for making the first meeting with my daughter a living nightmare.

Janine Hathaway had rattled my world when she left.

Her daughter was threatening to shake it to its foundation without even setting eyes on me.

Yes, Hathaway women would be the death of me.

My guardians had laid Rosemarie along the backseat, and I only had to turn a little to look at her face. She was bloodied and bruised, in and out of consciousness ever since we'd started this last leg to Baia. It was a miracle that she was alive, a seventeen-year-old dhampir girl alone against two Strigoi, but even miracles wouldn't be enough unless I got her help soon.

If the little Alchemist hadn't been riding with us, perhaps I'd have laughed.

My most powerful argument against Janine's plea had been that I wanted power, that, over everything else, I valued control and influence over my peers and over my so-called betters.

The last time I had seen her mother, she had held her head high, as if she'd never wanted me to be more than a sperm donor. Not two months later, I'd heard news that Janine had worked her way to one of the most coveted posts among guardians in the area. Somewhere in-between, she took care to inform me of my duties and rights toward her child: none whatsoever.

The joke was on me.

I'd made good on my vow; I was now known and respected across continents, I'd amassed power in about every sector of our society – and yet, none of that could help the child I'd given up for its sake.

She groaned, clearly in pain. "Dim-"

"Hush. We're almost there," I whispered, low enough that the human didn't pick up on it.

I'd never wanted so badly to talk to Janine's child.

Eighteen years I'd spent alternatively ignoring her and keeping track of her every movement. I'd glanced through the occasional picture of her, the grades she made at school and her teachers' reports. I'd even watched half a dozen videos from the time she and the young Dragomir had been on the run.

I had always thought her a mirror of her mother, but for her coloring.

Never had I wondered how much of _myself _there might be in her.

"Dimitri!" she cried out, her voice mostly smothered against the car seat. Anyone who hadn't been paying close attention to her would have missed it. "Dim- Don't…!"

Ah.

There was but one person named Dimitri in her files, and it was someone she should be calling Guadian Belikov if she had to call out for him at all. His name had been listed among the casualties of the Strigoi attack, though details of the event had not yet leaked to the general public. I just happened to have a marked interest in St. Vladimir's Academy – especially when my child's life came at risk within its walls.

Why did Belikov's name come up in Rosemarie's delirium?

I had an answer, and I did not like it. Live young men, I could deal with. Guardians turned Strigoi were somewhat out of my sphere.

"Dimitri…"

No wonder Janine had left her in order to make her career. One hour with her and I already wanted to pledge the world to her, spoil her into a true princess with the right to look down at the royals.

It was too late for that, but I could improvise.

She wanted a Belikov; I'd give her a household of them. I'd even do her the favor not to break the news of the young man's fate, or even hint that she knew him personally.

After that, I'd find out why she'd made the long trek to Siberia, and when I didn't like the answer – and I wouldn't, because now I had a good idea of it – I'd point her back to the States.

I could give Rosemarie the world if she asked. But she didn't need that anymore than her mother had.

She needed Janine.

Because, between the two of us, Janine was the one who could teach our child how to move on after a broken heart.

* * *

**The End**  
09/12/12


	7. apathetic Mr Nagy&Natalie Natalie's pov

**SUMMARY:** Set in _Vampire Academy_. Natalie's pov.  
**WORDCOUNT: **100. (a short one because the prompt was KILLING me.)  
**A.N.** Title taken from ReganX's amazing story, which in turn is taken from a _Tudors_ quote.

_Written for **100moods**. Prompt: apathetic._

* * *

**ON THE EDGE OF A GOLDEN WORLD  
**_by Leni_

* * *

The old man was drunk.

I had not believed I could actually go through with it, until I saw how helpless he was. I could not have chosen a better target. Who would miss him, this worthless fixture who remained at the Academy because the ones in charge _never changed anything_?

There would be change now.

There would be a future.

I would help it happen.

"Miss Dashkov?" he slurred, squinting through his glasses. "You – you should be in your dormitory." Suddenly he frowned, as if he'd just stumbled across an uncomfortable thought. "Isn't your father -?"

I lunged at him.

* * *

**The End**  
09/12/12


End file.
